The section headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not to be construed as limiting the subject matter described in any way.
When used in robotic applications, wheel assemblies may be required to withstand a significant amount of loading. A mobile robot, for example, may be thrown or dropped or may rollover or otherwise encounter impacts during its normal course of operation, thereby requiring that the robot have wheel structures that adequately absorb such forces (i.e., axial and/or radial loads) to prevent damage to the robot's wheels and/or chassis. To right the robot if the robot is upside down and/or on its side (e.g., after rolling or being dropped or thrown), a robot may require a resilient self-righting mechanism, such as, for example, a set of flipper arms coupled to its wheels, for example its rear wheels.
To improve the energy absorption of a wheel structure (i.e., to provide resilience for both radially-directed impacts and/or side (axially-directed) impacts), it may be desirable to provide a wheel structure that absorbs a predetermined amount of both axial and radial forces. Thus, it may be desirable to provide a wheel structure that allows a designer to tailor a wheel's axial and radial stiffness.
To prevent damage to a flipper structure during a side impact, it may be desirable to provide a flipper structure that can absorb side-impact energy and/or transmit side-impact energy to the wheel structure without compromising functionality. It may, therefore, be desirable to provide a flipper structure designed to absorb impact by translating toward the wheel structure during certain impacts, but which still provides adequate rotational stiffness to lift the robot or right an overturned robot. Furthermore, it may be desirable to provide an insert that creates a robust interface between an axle of the wheel and the flipper structure, thereby securely coupling the flipper structure to the axle while also preventing flipper backlash.